Page 252 of The Internet’s Most Haunted Influencer

Nate looked around. His laptop was on a paint bucket. There were tools to put away, things to finish, more things he hadn’t even started. For weeks, he’d been keeping track of what still needed doing before he could hand the place over to someone else.

He tried to imagine giving those people a tour of the rooms, showing them the foxgloves out front…

He shuddered.

“Which room would you choose?” he asked Leo.

“The biggest one, obviously.”

Nate smiled. “Obviously.”

“It has good light,” Leo added.

“Then that’ll be our room.” Nate reached for his pillow and made a largely pointless attempt to fluff it.

When he looked up, Leo was watching him.

“What?”

“Our room?”

Nate paused with the pillow in his hands. “What, did you want it all for yourself?”

“No, I was just…” Leo stopped. “Are you sure it’ll be okay? What about the money? The roof still needs to be fixed.”

Nate licked his lips. He’d thought about this too. “The channel is bringing in a lot now.” Not quite enough yet, but he had a few other ideas for things he could do to bring in more money.

“Really?” Leo asked. “Because a lot of people have been calling you names in the comments. I saw that, even though you tried to scroll past quickly.”

“Let’s not let the mean people decide how we live our lives.” Every day now, Nate had to block one or two people from his channel. Not a great experience, but not the worst, as long as he could close the laptop and go back to Leo once he was done.

“Don’t let the mean people decide,” Leo mused. “I think I can get on board with that.”

“Great.” Nate put the pillow down and settled onto it.

Tomorrow, Leo would remember the life he’d lost.

Nate hoped he’d still want the one they’d just been planning.

Chapter

Fifty-Four

Leo wanted to hold Nate’s hand.

It seemed a small enough thing to want, under the circumstances. They were sitting right beside each other at the kitchen table, and Nate’s hand was so close that Leo had arranged his own beside it with their little fingers overlapping.

He couldn’t feel a thing.

Nate looked down at their hands, then at him. “You all right?”

“Ask me afterward.”

That got a small smile out of him. Good. Leo preferred that to the way he’d been looking at the ring.

It lay on the table before them. Such a small thing. To think that it held so much of him.

Miriam was about to give all of that back.